WHEN Glass Magazine was kindly invited to attend the Royal Salute Maharaja of Jodhpur Golden Jubilee Cup in India and to stay in the Maharaja’s very own palace, the last place I imagined finding myself was atop a grunting camel playing polo in the dark. And yet, on my first visit to India, this is precisely where I was, 6ft polo stick in one hand, the other desperately holding onto the less than amused camel rider in front of me who was, I am thankful to say, steering said disgruntled camel.
The Camel Polo match, a friendly game played between novices, was one of a number of events held in celebration of the opening of the Royal Salute Maharaja of Jodhpur Golden Jubilee Cup, an annual tournament held in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Having never so much as ridden a horse, I found this something of a baptism of fire to the sport, but one filled with much hilarity.
The previous day, the group I was travelling with flew into Delhi, in northern India, before making the trip down to Jodhpur in the central state of Rajasthan where the Cup was taking place. This was my first visit to India, and my only prior knowledge of the country was gleaned from Indian friends or from watching blockbusters such as Slumdog Millionaire and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, so this journey was something of an eye-opener.
We drove through bustling streets – a hectic frenzy of speeding cars and mopeds, with dogs and cows wandering free and causing havoc – accompanied by the incessant sound of a hundred car horns beeping simultaneously. I was quite shocked by the dirt and the poverty as we whizzed past families of young children cooking scraps of food on roadside fires, alongside mountains of litter and endless dust.
This dust, however, was beautifully and poetically punctuated by India’s magnificent colours – an old man on a motorbike sporting a neon pink turban, or a group of women by the roadside clothed in resplendent saris of gold, amber and turquoise.
As we drove towards Jodhpur, I was curious as to how a sport such as polo might be played out in this dusty context. Traditionally associated with the British Royal Family, clean-cut public school boys and immaculately manicured green grass, one might think that polo and India are an odd combination. This is not the case, however, and the clue to their long mutual history is in Jodhpur’s name.
While the first recorded games of polo were played in what is now Iran, the modern game of polo actually derives from a game played in India which was brought to Britain in the 18th century by soldiers who had been training there. Jodhpur was an important centre for polo from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century.
What is regarded as a quintessentially English style of riding trousers, the “jodhpur”, was in fact introduced to England and made fashionable in Britain when worn in Queen Victoria’s court by one of the ancestors of the current Maharaja of Jodhpur. For a time, the sport died out in India but it was revived in Jodhpur 20 years ago and the city now boasts a first class team.
When we arrived in Jodhpur, much of the city was similar to what we had experienced on our journey – narrow dusty streets of low rise buildings painted with the faded signage of western brands. By contrast, as we approached the Maharaja’s Palace we entered a glamorous haven. Still under the possession of the Maharajah, and home to his family since 1943, the Umaid Bhawan Palace is everything a Maharaja’s palace should be. A majestic domed sandstone building, it sits on a hillside, proudly surveying the city of Jodhpur below it. We stayed in a portion of the palace which is run as a hotel but were still given the royal treatment.
Our arrival was literally met by a fanfare of trumpets and bowing as we climbed the red-carpeted steps to enter the main building. A cool sanctuary from the Indian heat, this rotunda with a soaring cupola serves as a lobby area. It is quiet and calm, with sandstone walls adorned with a veritable zoo of beautiful, if a little unnerving, taxidermy.
Decorated with a mixture of Art Deco and classical pieces, the rest of the hotel is a maze of buildings connected by courtyards, silent but for the sound of pretty, rose petal-strewn fountains. My bedroom – one of the Historical Suites – was a small palace in its own right. On one side it overlooked a serene and sunshine-drenched courtyard garden, perfectly manicured and centred on a fountain.
On the other side it had views of the palace’s grounds – some 26 acres of lush greenery containing, among other treats, a private museum, marble squash courts and a jealousy-inducing collection of vintage cars. The next day we attended the first match, which took place on a beautifully kept polo field a few minutes’ drive from the palace. The day began with a procession of horses – or “ponies” as they are called in polo – followed by a series of horses decked out in a traditional Indian dress of heavily beaded and embroidered saddles, silk flags and decorative parasols.
The polo games themselves were beautiful in a way for which I was unprepared. Polo is anything but the polite tea-time game I had imagined. Unlike the stubborn camel I rode at the opening party, the polo ponies were flying at tremendous speed across the field – some 330 metres in length – lustrous with sweat, yet graceful in the Indian sunshine.
The polo players themselves were athletically throwing themselves and their sticks around, reaching at precarious angles to strike the ball whilst travelling at break-neck speeds. Their fearlessness and evident adrenalin rush made the game quite addictive to watch and an elegant crowd of Jodhpur locals, the Jodhpur Royal Family and a team from Royal Salute whisky, sponsors of the polo, were gripped as the tournament was fought out.
The company Chivas Brothers has been making Royal Salute whisky in Scotland since the Queen’s coronation in 1953 and are the sponsors of the World Polo Series, which takes them to all manner of cities around the world. During my trip, I had the pleasure of taking part in a whisky tasting. Neil MacDonald, Royal Salute’s Brand Director, took us through the tasting, where we sampled three different whiskies – the 21 Year Old, the Limited Edition 21 Year Old Polo Batch, and the Royal Salute Diamond Jubilee Tribute.
We were walked through the intricate mix of aromas and flavours that each iteration of the drink offered (up to 200 different flavour notes in each whisky), while Neil explained the value of adding a dash of water to one’s whisky (it opens it up and releases the full aromatic complexity) and the perils of adding ice (it suppresses the aromatics in the glass). Never again will an ice cube meet with my whisky glass.
On our final evening, we were treated to a spectacular celebration to mark the end of the Cup at the Mehrangarh Fort, a magnificent and imposing fortress built in the 15th and 17th centuries in the centre of the city and behind whose high walls a series of palaces were intricately carved from stone.
The fort was decked out in a splendid explosion of colour and activity for the event; I marvelled as I walked through a cloud of bright pink rose petals which rained down on us from the battlements, forming a soft carpet at our feet. We were paraded through a sea of men and women dressed in vibrant hues of fuchsia, lime green, red and purple who treated us to dancing, fire breathing, singing and various other wonderful performances which will remain etched in my memory for ever.
And while this lavish display was a far cry from the India I had witnessed beyond the walls of the fort and the palace, it somehow encapsulated the sights and sounds which make India so unique, and felt a fitting and vibrant end to a majestic week.
by Emilie Lemons
Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur – 342006, Rajasthan, India
Tel: +91 291 2510101
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